Drop off unwanted gear, buy loaf of bread

HP and supermarket giant Sainsbury’s are asking Londoners to recycle IT kit they no longer use.

Both firms want people to bring neglected desktops, laptops, fax machines, scanners and printers to Sainsbury’s Nine Elms store in Vauxhall, London this Saturday (6 September) between 11am and 4pm for recycling purposes.

HP said it plans to donate some old and unwanted IT equipment to local charities once the machines have been “professionally refurbished” by Maxitech.biz.

The tech vendor promised that defunct items that can’t be passed on to charities will not end up in landfill, but will instead be recycled by a specialised recycling plant.

"HP has been involved in the recycling and refurbishment of IT equipment for a number of years, and is delighted to be working with Sainsbury’s to make the process more convenient for their customers whilst reducing their environmental footprint at the same time,” said Bruno Zago, the company’s environmental manager. “HP hopes that this event will be the first of a series of events in the UK.”

Manchester-based Recycle-IT has offered a similar service for some years now, in conjunction with Computer Aid International, although they tend to specialise in sending refurbed kit to charity organisations overseas.

Recycle-IT’s John Hastings told El Reg that it was positive to see big name computer makers “taking seriously” the recycling of IT kit. “It can only be a good thing,” he said. ®